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I got sad news... I've been programming more than one year now and I feel a little bit exhausted of all of C++, Win32 and etc. I think I need a break.. Can you recommend me some easy and exciting thing to learn (programming, game creation etc.) or you think I might not to do breaks in my programming career?

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My "for fun" programming (as in, when I'm off the clock) has been all over the place:- XNA- iPhone- AI- Random hardware projects

Of course game development is fun, but building a huge engine just to get things up and running is probably going to be just as exhausting as doing any normal business applications.

My recommendation would be, if you're thinking about playing around with games and don't want to worry about the more complicated things, to pick up an XNA book. XNA Unleashed is excellent and will teach you everything you need to know to make your first game. It's C# (not sure if you know the language or not), but it's similar enough to C++ that you can follow the book's examples and not be lost. Also, VS Express Edition '08 as well as the XNA SDK are free downloads. As a bonus, if you have an XBox 360 you can join the Creator's Club and actually play your games on your console.

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My "for fun" programming (as in, when I'm off the clock) has been all over the place:- XNA- iPhone- AI- Random hardware projects

Of course game development is fun, but building a huge engine just to get things up and running is probably going to be just as exhausting as doing any normal business applications.

My recommendation would be, if you're thinking about playing around with games and don't want to worry about the more complicated things, to pick up an XNA book. XNA Unleashed is excellent and will teach you everything you need to know to make your first game. It's C# (not sure if you know the language or not), but it's similar enough to C++ that you can follow the book's examples and not be lost. Also, VS Express Edition '08 as well as the XNA SDK are free downloads. As a bonus, if you have an XBox 360 you can join the Creator's Club and actually play your games on your console.

I'm thinking to seek career in game programming, and I already know some C# and XNA (i think it would be good thing to learn a little more).

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You are 16. A carrier is never late. Being so strict will burn you out in no time.I say get a totally different hobby too. Get friends, date girls, play sports, whatever.

And a question. Do you actually code? I mean do you have a 'grand' project to work on? If you have a project, that you enjoy making, it's a long term stuff, whatever, then you won't get tired of it so easily (getting tired in a year? That means you are doing something wrong, or programming is not for you).

I think that only learning from books, learning too strictly, coding for only knowledge is almost like wasting time. I'm pretty sure that I'm a better programmer (more precisely problem solver), than a several-years-from-book-learning person. Because I did that for fun. Not for a long time plan/career.

Always working for the future and never really enjoying the moment is the worst thing a human can do.

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Original post by szecsYou are 16. A carrier is never late. Being so strict will burn you out in no time.I say get a totally different hobby too. Get friends, date girls, play sports, whatever.

And a question. Do you actually code? I mean do you have a 'grand' project to work on? If you have a project, that you enjoy making, it's a long term stuff, whatever, then you won't get tired of it so easily (getting tired in a year? That means you are doing something wrong, or programming is not for you).

I think that only learning from books, learning too strictly, coding for only knowledge is almost like wasting time. I'm pretty sure that I'm a better programmer (more precisely problem solver), than a several-years-from-book-learning person. Because I did that for fun. Not for a long time plan/career.

Always working for the future and never really enjoying the moment is the worst thing a human can do.

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Download Blender and try your hand at some 3D modeling and animation. I don't have an artistic bone in my body, but I don't have any trouble killing hours monkeying around creating models - or at least trying to. Maybe you can end up with a few art assets you can use in that next project.

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Awhile back I decided that I've had enough of research and trying to learn new stuff and that I'd just try and program using the knowledge I already have. It was great just being able to write code, hit build, and it did what I want. Until of course I came to the part where I needed to do something I haven't tried before and then I got bogged down in a couple months or research and trying to learn something new.